'There is not an argument for not wearing seat belts'

Friday

Struck by another car, the McEachern family's truck swerved across three lanes of traffic on Interstate 495, flipping over six times before it crashed to a stop on its side.

Daniel and Theresa McEachern survived that terrifying crash in May along with their daughter Megan, 13, and the Franklin family's dog, Buddy.

Recovery from the accident is tough and slow, Theresa said last week. Daniel is recuperating from hurting his head, neck and back, and Theresa is still undergoing physical therapy for a serious knee injury, she said.

But Theresa has little doubt is sure her family can thank seat belts for surviving their accident in Foxborough. Everyone was buckled up that day -- even Buddy.

``I firmly believe that the seat belts did save our lives, in addition to having God or an angel on our shoulder,'' she said. ``With that combination, I think we were very, very, very lucky.''

But more and more drivers not wearing seat belts have fared much worse on state highways this year, including several deadly crashes in MetroWest and the Milford area.

The Massachusetts State Police have responded to 17 percent more fatal car accidents so far this year, compared to the same time period in 2006. As of this month, 156 people have died on state highways this year, up 20 percent from 130 deaths between January and July last year, state troopers said.

The percentage killed while not wearing seat belts has scarcely budged since last year. Sixty-five of the people who died this year were not buckled in, or 42 percent, state police said.

At the same time last year, 56 people had died without seat belts, or 43 percent, state police said.

Several deaths were in this region, including a New Hampshire man killed this month in Waltham when his car veered off Interstate 95, and a Raynham teen who was ejected from a car and killed on I-495 in Bellingham. Two New York men were killed last month on their way home from a Red Sox game, ejected from their sport utility vehicle on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Southborough after the vehicle hit a deer and went out of control.

Those numbers trouble local police and emergency responders.

``I can tell you in my experience, a lot of people could have survived,'' said Framingham Police Lt. Paul Shastany. ``It doesn't make sense, and there is not an argument for not wearing seat belts.''

However, there is evidence the overall percentage of drivers using seat belts has improved in Massachusetts over the past five years, though the state has long lagged behind others. Still, at least one prominent lawmaker from MetroWest says she hopes the Legislature will again take up a hot-button bill this year that would let police pull drivers over if they're spotted unbuckled.

A 2006 state survey found 67 percent of drivers wore seat belts, well below the national average, said Sheila Burgess-Hill, director of the Executive Office of Public Safety's highway safety division.

But that percentage appears to have climbed to 74 percent so far this year, said Burgess-Hill, who partly credited the state's ongoing Click It or Ticket campaign with local police departments.

In the past five years, the state's seat belt use has improved 16 percentage points, from 58 percent to 74 percent, she said.

``We constantly have ongoing mobilizations, where we work with individual as well as state police agencies,'' Burgess-Hill said. ``In addition to that, we have sobriety check points that are ongoing.''

Still, Mendon Police and Fire Chief Ernest Horn said as the head of the Central Massachusetts Reconstruction Team, most fatal crashes he sees still involve people not wearing safety belts.

``When we get called to a fatal, almost every single one, we'll get there and they're not wearing their seat belt,'' Horn said. ``Thinking back over the last five years, in crashes where there was minor (damage) or no passenger compartment intrusion ... I'd say 100 percent of the time in those crashes, no one died unless they were unbelted.''

Bill Anderson, owner of Anderson Driving School in Framingham, said he tries to dispel myths he hears from students that seat belts could trap a driver in a car fire or if submerged in water.

``That doesn't happen very often,'' Anderson said. ``You're also more likely to be able to open a door if you're conscious.''

Some students also cite cases where friends have been hurt or killed despite wearing a seat belt, but the chances of injury or getting thrown from a car are far higher unbuckled, Anderson said.

``I think the kids are wearing seat belts a lot better nowadays than they were in my generation, and I'm in my 50s,'' Anderson said.

State Sen. Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, said she hopes the state will revisit a bill that would make failing to buckle up a primary offense. Under current law, police can only ticket for not wearing a seat belt if the driver is pulled over for another offense, such as speeding or having a taillight out.

``To me, the longer we wait, unfortunately, the more fatalities there will be,'' Spilka said. ``This is something I think that is pretty simple that we could do that would save lives.''

The measure has faltered three times since 2001 and was narrowly defeated in the House last year. Critics, including former state Rep. Marie Parente of Milford, said the measure was an invasion of privacy, or could open the door for racial profiling and other abuses of police power.

Spilka said the state also has financial incentive to revisit the issue.

Federal legislation in 2005 made additional highway funding available to states where 85 percent of drivers use seat belts for two consecutive years in a row.

In the meantime, state police are doing their best to encourage seat belt use and reduce fatalities, said spokesman Sgt. Robert Bousquet. Nationwide, about 72 percent of auto deaths involve people without seat belts, he said.

State police received extra funding from the Executive Office of Public Safety to step up Click It or Ticket campaigns and saw funding for sobriety checkpoints boosted from $100,000 to $400,000 this year, Bousquet said.

``The best action any member of the public may take to save their own life is to wear a seat belt,'' Bousquet said in an e-mail.

That's a lesson Cody Keiser of Hopkinton said he learned firsthand in February, when he escaped unscathed in February when the truck he was riding in skidded on ice and tumbled down a steep embankment on South Street.

His friend, Joel Rogers, also of Hopkinton, was seriously injured behind the wheel in that crash -- he wasn't wearing a seat belt -- but has since recovered, Keiser said.

``He's wicked lucky,'' Keiser said. ``He should be dead. I should be dead. But I was wearing my seat belt. I came out pretty much unscathed.''

David Riley can be reached at 508-626-3919 or driley@cnc.com.

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